About
Catherine and Matt West work together under their studio name, Pottery West, creating wheel-thrown in stoneware fired both in reduction and oxidation out of their Yorkshire studio.
We draw on our previous experience in design and architecture, making subtle, meticulously detailed and simple wheel-thrown forms often used in a functional context. There is an interplay and tension between perfection and consistency and the looser more poetic quality of the human touch in craft.
Our pots often contain facets, carefully calculated crystalline or layered glazes or specific firing processes which add a sense of narrative and poetry.
We aim for our pots to be a quiet but confident celebration of detail, function and the poetics of making.
Our book ‘Designing and Making Tableware at The Wheel’ was published in 2024.
Matt West
Matt studied Design at Goldsmiths but and after graduation spent time re-training as a baker in Berlin and Sheffield. At some point during this time he also discovered clay and spent time honing his skills. Although largely self-taught, clay does run in the family. Matt’s father was a sculptor, often using clay to model with, and on his maternal side, we’ve recently discovered a few generations of potters and ‘clay workers’, who moved from France to London to Staffordshire, working for Royal Doulton. So it is in the genes - we wonder if our own children will develop a love for clay too.
Matt also loves to play music, cook and play tennis.
Catherine West
Catherine studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths, graduating in 2011. She spent the next few years working in copy writing and marketing, which led her to a job within the Yorkshire Artspace and an architectural firm. During this time she and Matt started making pottery together and for the last decade have built their studio together. Catherine leads on the glazes and marketing side of the studio predominantly.
Away from the studio she enjoys running, reading, knitting, gardening and looking after their three children.
